The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to providing multicast registered state change notifications to information handling systems in a Fibre Channel fabric.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems are sometimes provided in fabrics. For example, conventional FC fabrics may include switch devices that connect FC end devices that communicate via FC communications, and/or FC over Ethernet (FCoE) end devices that communicate via FCoE communications. The end devices in the fabric may register to be notified of state changes in the fabric via Registered State Change Notifications (RSCNs), and when a management application in a switch device detects a state change in the fabric (e.g., a change to one of the end devices), that management application operates to generate and send a unicast RSCN to each end device that is registered to receive such RSCNs. The generation and sending of unicast RSCNs can raise a number of issues, as the management applications in the switch devices must queue and send a separate unicast RSCN to each end device in the fabric that is registered to receive one when a fabric change is detected, which greatly increases the traffic that must be generated and sent by those management applications.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved RSCN system.